SeoulSisters Awards

Best New Young Player, America
Song Hee Kim
This award goes to the Korean player who made the biggest first splash in 2006 in the States. It's a tough call. Tiffany Joh certainly impressed with her near win at the ANZ Masters, then her victory at the US Pub Links Championship. Kim Kim was arguably even more impressive, winning the US Women's Amateur and finishing runner up at the Pub Links, all at the tender age of 14. But the player who had the most auspicious 2006 debut season, in our opinion, was Song Hee Kim. Kim did not win a tournament as important as those won by Joh and Kim Kim, but her incredible consistency and record shattering run cannot be ignored.

Technically, Song Hee made her first big impression on the American golf scene when she dominated the Futures Tour Qualifying School in late 2005. Her achievement was so impressive that the Futures Tour actually lowered the minimum age limit for membership on tour just so she could play full time in 2006. But it was really in 2006 where she demonstrated her explosive potential, thoroughly dominating one of the deepest classes in Futures Tour history.

It took Song Hee just three events to win her first title on the Futures Tour. She thus became the youngest professional golfer to ever win an event in the United States. In May, she won again, outlasting Sarah Huarte in a grueling nine hole playoff at the IOS Futures Golf Classic. She took a week off to visit her home country, then returned to the tour and won for a third time. Her fourth victory came on her eighteenth birthday, as she beat one of the strongest players on the tour, In Bee Park, who was still looking for her first win. She later won for a fifth time, tying the Futures Tour record for most wins in a season held by Korean superstar Grace Park. She had a total of 12 top tens, and had the second highest season money total in tour history. By the time her year was done, she had her fellow tour members shaking their heads in admiration. It's not often that someone is so impressive right out of the gate that she instantly becomes the player against whom everyone else measures themselves. But that's exactly what happened in her first year as a professional to Song Hee Kim.

Honorable Mentions:
Kimberly Kim
Jenny Shin
Tiffany Joh

Best New Young Player, International
Ji Yai Shin
Ji Yai Shin had the same kind of season on the KLPGA that Song Hee Kim had on the Futures Tour. Like Kim, Shin quickly established herself as the player to beat on tour. Just an eighteen year old rookie, she was regularly handling potential superstars like Bo Bae Song, Hee Young Park and Na Yeon Choi with the greatest of ease. If anything, she was even more consistent than Song Hee Kim. She finished in the top five more than half of the events she played in 2006, and only rarely finished outside the top ten.

Like Kim, Shin had made her first splash in 2005, but nothing prepared the world for just how good she was going to be in 2006. In Shin's case, her first success came when she won the SK Enclean tournament on the KLPGA as a 17 year old amateur. She was the youngest player and only amateur to win on the KLPGA tour in 2005. She turned professional over the Winter, and promptly won her first pro event in Hong Kong. Entering the KLPGA season earlier this year, she was definitely someone to keep an eye on. But the smart money would have been for Bo Bae Song to repeat for the third time as Player of the Year, or for 2005's Rookie of the Year Hee Young Park to take over the top spot on tour.

But with Song suffering recurring injuries, for a while the battle was between Park and Shin. Park won the first event of the year while Shin finished third. But the impressive thing about Shin soon became apparent: whereas Park would have the occasional tournament where she was not up to snuff, Shin seemed to play well almost every time she teed it up. Shin finished third in her second event of the year as well, and won the third event she played, which also happened to be the Korean Women's Open, the most important event on tour all year.

Shin finally seized control of the money list from Park in the middle of the year with her second win at the PAVV Invitational. At that point, Park faltered, but Shin did not. She continued to amass one great finish after another. In fact, in her remaining eight events on tour in 2006, she finished in the top ten eight times. She won a dominating victory at the Orient Chinese Ladies Open for her third win of the year, one of the few players to ever win that often in a year on tour.

Shin ended up winning five awards at the year end KLPGA Awards ceremony, another record. She set the all time record for most money made in a season, shattering the record previously held by Se Ri Pak. She also set the all time lowest scoring average in tour history, becoming the first to ever break 70 for a whole season. She was nearly a full stroke ahead of Na Yeon Choi, who was second.

If this is what Ji Yai Shin is doing when she is an eighteen year old rookie, the mind reels contemplating what she could be doing five years from now. The sky does seem to be the limit.

Honorable Mentions
Amy Yang
The 16 year old amateur won one of the most important professional women's events in Australia, and that was just for starters. Now professional, look for her to be a major force on the European tour in 2007.

Jin Joo Hong
Hong was the latest obscure KLPGA player to win an LPGA event and qualify for the tour. But her year had many other highlights as well.

Rookie of the Year
Seon Hwa Lee
In 2006, there were three Koreans rookies who had magnificent seasons on three different international tours. All three of them won the Rookie of the Year award for their tours, and two of them were additionally Players of the Year and leading money winners as well. Seon Hwa Lee, the 2006 LPGA Rookie of the Year, was only 20 years old, but she was actually the oldest of the three ladies in question. Nonetheless, she is our choice for Rookie of the Year, and here's why.

The winningest of the three rookie stars was Song Hee Kim, who collected five wins on the Futures Tour, tying a record for that tour. But she also did it in a minor league tour, and never faced top talent all year. So the battle for SeoulSisters.com's Rookie award came down to Seon Hwa Lee and the other top Rookie star, the KLPGA Player of the Year Ji Yai Shin.

Shin's credentials, as mentioned before, are impressive. She had three wins on tour, and multiple top tens. What's more, she proved herself against world class talent on several occasions. She beat Cristie Kerr at the Korean Women's Open, when both were in contention until the very end. She outplayed Grace Park and Mi Hyun Kim at the SK Enclean, topped Christina Kim at Lake Hills, and outplayed other top Korean players in other events. At the Kolon Hana Bank Championship, paired with her idol Se Ri Pak in the final round, she matched her virtually shot for shot, finishing 4th place, one place behind Se Ri and two behind British Open winner Jeong Jang. Among the players she beat at that event were 2005 LPGA Rookie of the Year Paula Creamer.

Shin also had two head to head match ups with Seon Hwa Lee in 2006, and beat her both times. At the Kolon-Hana Bank, while Shin finished 4th, Lee finished twenty second. They also met head to head at the KLPGA's Hite Cup, an event where Seon Hwa was the defending champion. Shin lost in a playoff at that event to Hyun Hee Moon, while Lee finished tied for 14th, ten shots behind Shin. The media made a big deal about the fact that the two rookie stars were paired in the first round. That match up went to Shin, who shot a 69 to Lee's 71.

Seon Hwa struggled a bit in the second half of the LPGA season, and her consistency was nowhere near Shin's. In addition, her scoring average was well off Shin's. Shin had a 69.72 stroke average in 15 events, Lee a 71.30 scoring average in 28 events. And Shin was far more consistent, with 14 top tens in her 15 events compared to just 7 in 28 for Seon Hwa.

While Seon Hwa's accomplishments relative to her league are nowhere near what Shin did, they were still very impressive. She beat one of the toughest rookie classes in LPGA history to earn the LPGA's Rookie of the Year honor. One could argue that just the rookies Lee had to face were as tough as the KLPGA's top players that Shin had to face, and that doesn't include facing down Lorena Ochoa, Karrie Webb and Annika Sorenstam on a regular basis. The courses Lee plays are also tougher than those Shin faces, so Shin's scoring average would probably be much higher on the LPGA.

Still, it's hard to discount the fact that, when Shin went against tough competition, she usually came out on top. And though winning Rookie of the Year on the KLPGA tour is far less impressive than doing it on the LPGA tour, Shin was so overwhelmingly dominating that you have to go back to the days of Se Ri Pak and Mi Hyun Kim to find anyone who compares. Lee's rookie year was impressive, but one could argue that Meena Lee's rookie year in 2005 was close to as impressive; certainly Meena finished higher on the money list and had just one fewer top two finish than Seon Hwa did.

Comparing the most impressive wins of the year for each player is an instructive exercise. Shin beat Cristie Kerr at the Korean Women's Open. Kerr was coming off a victory a few weeks earlier. She was tied with Shin with three holes to go. Both were having great rounds on Sunday. Shin simply seized the moment and outplayed arguably the best American women's golfer. She hit a glorious approach on 16 to half a meter for an easy birdie, then followed that with another approach to a couple feet for another birdie and a two shot lead. She also birdied the par 5 18th hole from about three feet for a two shot lead (Kerr also birdied 18). Now that is a prime example of handling pressure well.

Meanwhile, Seon Hwa Lee found herself locked in a tight battle at the ShopRite not only with Annika Sorenstam, the #1 golfer in the world, but also Sophie Gustafson and Jeong Jang. Any of those players could have walked away with the trophy. Sorenstam had won this event comfortably in 2005, and so felt good on this particular course. Despite this, Lee owned the competition, grinding them into dust and winning by three shots.

In comparing these two achievements, keep in mind that not only did Lee beat the superior player, she did it on a course where Sorenstam had won in the past. Kerr was playing on Shin's turf, and had never won in Korea before to my knowledge. What Seon Hwa did in beating Annika and the other top players was probably a more impressive achievement than what Shin did in beating Kerr at the Open.

The case for Shin is no doubt a good one, but in the end we are sticking with our guns and giving the award to Seon Hwa Lee. Lee had to be on her toes all year, for she constantly had players like Ai Miyazato, Julieta Granada and Jee Young Lee threatening to go on a run and take the Rookie title. Shin really put the Rookie title away early in the year. Even though Lee faded in the second half of the year, she still produced enough good finishes, such as a third place at the State Farm Classic, to clinch the title. The way Lee took control of the race right from the beginning was amazing, but the fact that she stubbornly held on even when she struggled with her game was impressive as well. And Lee had to do this over far more tournaments than Shin had to play, 28 in all, played over a vast geographic expanse that saw her contesting titles in Korea, Europe, the US and Mexico. By contrast, Shin only had to play one event outside of her home country.

Lastly, we want to make sure to follow our own advice! Earlier, we complained that the US media has been dissing Seon Hwa Lee all year. We certainly don't want to be accused of doing that ourselves. So Seon Hwa Lee is the SeoulSisters.com Rookie of the Year!